One of the least-acknowledged hazards to cyclists is debris.
Once, I flatted when I ran over a metal strip used to bind bundles of lumber or bricks together for shipping to construction sites. Work crews were leaving them on sidewalks and in streets until the city cracked down on them. My tire was punctured near Tompkins Square Park; I fixed it in part because I wasn't takin' no stinkin' subway home when I could pedal. Also, I might've been too poor to take the train!
I can joke about it now, but I'd heard of cyclists who suffered more serious accidents, resulting in serious injuries, as a result of running over those straps. I've also heard of riders who crashed as a result of other kinds of debris or from sharp bumps that result from cement dripping from trucks and drying.
As a result of my experiences, and of the stories I've heard, I occasionally clean up the section of bike lane that runs by my apartment, and pick up potentially-hazardous objects I find. I like to think I'm helping to make conditions safer, and to prevent an accident.
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| Bill Woodard, about to embark on his last bike ride, 13 April 2021. |
Like the one that befell Bill Woodard in St. George, Utah. Shortly before 11 am last Tuesday, responders were dispatched to Woodard, who lay on the side of Route 7. He'd been riding with longtime friend and riding partner Gordon MacFarlane when he rode over a piece of metal that lodged into the spokes of his front wheel.
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| The object that caused the crash. |
Apparently, MacFarlane didn't hear it and assumed his friend was rolling behind him until a vehicle pulled up alongside him. Its driver yelled to him that a cyclist was lying on the side of the road. He turned around and headed back to find ambulance crew members performing CPR on Woodard.
They--and MacFarlane--at first assumed that Woodard, who was 75 years old, suffered a heart attack or other medical issue. But, it seems that anything they'd done would've been to no avail: His neck was broken and he incurred serious head trauma. Since Woodard never regained consciousness after falling, he couldn't tell anyone what happened, and the cause of his accident wasn't surmised until the object that lodged in his spokes was found.
Kevin Kitchen, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Transportation, confirmed that debris is a "serious problem" in area roads and "much of the debris" the maintenance force finds "appears to have come from loads consisting of construction materials."
There is another little-acknowledged problem--much of the debris that is hazardous to cyclists, and to the general public, is a result of construction, especially in places like southern Utah that are experiencing construction booms.
